Making It Seamless

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This week has been a frustrating one technologically-speaking; some successes, but a couple key failures. Examples follow:

I was in charge of chapel for the Elementary School which entailed planning the half-hour with songs, a message, a bit of fun, and hopefully some depth and substance as well. After sketching out the general plan, I went to work on my puppet show to support the central message. No big struggles with technology here… only issue was making sure that the puppeteers were all miked backstage. This was solved with two wireless stand mikes on the two sides and one wireless headset mike in the middle. Wireless is so great for puppet shows; no tripping over the wires behind the curtain.

After finding a willing guitarist and another person to help with the singing, I made use of the internet to find chords and even give examples of the song being sung and strummed. One song was too ancient to find on You Tube, so I had to teach it directly. In defense of this poor, neglected song, I did find others who recognized this song, but they were (of course) about my age. So far, so good.

I made use of Keynote to get the lyrics up on the auditorium screens to assist the sing-alongs and even figured out how to embed a pre-recorded song into one of the Keynote presentations. (That would be the song used to support the colorful, lip-synching Muppet-style monsters.) The monster song was to be the energy high point of the chapel, so I worked hard on that one to make it appealing and easy to read.

The night before, we rehearsed the puppet show and the puppet song and everything worked beautifully. The next morning, two of my puppeteers showed up one schedule, but one was sick… so we had to quickly adapt. I gave my narrator part to another teacher and ducked behind the curtain to play the part of the cynical dog. We did mike checks but did not have time to do the puppet-song Keynote check since my sound booth guy had safety duty out on the sidewalk. So, the chapel starts, and we roll into the first song; the Keynote lyrics work fine. Then comes the puppet song. Monsters are in place, ready to begin…. and …. nothing. Ad-libbing monsters pop up and ham it up for a bit…. still nothing. So out from behind the curtain I come with my vent puppet, Truthful the Lion, and we continue as best we can segueing into the puppet show, “A Love Story with No Kissing.”  That part goes fine, but I am still frustrated by the failure of the music to play upon launch of the Keynote. (Still waiting to hear back about that one.) Technology is great, except when things go wrong.

One teacher offered to record the puppet show with a digital camera. The one that she borrowed from the library, however, was not fully charged, even though it had been plugged in overnight. Turns out that the charger doesn’t work when the computer it’s plugged into goes into sleep mode. I think I have found a solution for that one now, but too late for getting that puppet skit recorded. Sigh.

With the chapel over and done, I launch into my library classes. I am in charge of the large and wiggly second grade class for a half-hour library lesson in the second grade classroom and I am ready to do a unit on non-fiction books. I would like to show them a lovely book, written and illustrated by Peter Jenkins, called “In Living Color.” It is beautifully detailed with many fascinating critters and facts on each page. I would love to be able to show each student these illustrations up close. Wouldn’t it be great if I had a document projector? There’s one in the 5th grade classroom? Run, run; unplug and borrow; back to 2nd grade… hmm. Different setup and no available cord. No way to hook it up. It will be set up later, but not for a while. So, back to showing the pictures from my lap at the front of the room. Kids are still really excited, but some can’t quite see the details.

Good technology should be seamless. But in order for this to happen, you have got to set it up ahead of time, practice, know how to troubleshoot, whittle down transition times, and make sure that your tool is a good fit for the intended use. I need more practice. I am getting more practice, but I am very tired at the moment.

It’s All in My Head

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“Digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking, and thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have proven to be somewhat ephemeral.” Wow. It’s starting to soak in. I’m reading something called “The Horizon Report” and I have to keep stopping to absorb stuff. Although I feel like I’m already water-logged (steady rain during my hour-long soggy bike commute home) I know that to “stay afloat” in this digitally-connected and ever-evolving academic world, I need to cultivate the ability to be ever more absorbent. Now I sound like a diaper commercial. Let’s go back to that first statement.

“Digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking.” So it’s not just a matter of absorbing all of the new applications, digital organizers, enlightened blog posts, and cool resource-laden websites…. (how can I remember all that stuff anyways?)…. it’s more about changing my way of thinking about the learning process and welcoming the digital shift.

I admit that change does not come easily to me. I watched an amazing but completely normal event in the library today. The usual early-morning batch of educational gamers had installed themselves at the computers and I mentioned to one of them my plans for expanding the school library website and adding some extras… like links to some great new educational games. “Like what?” Of course, he was curious. They are tired of playing the same old teacher-approved games and typing practice. So I gave him one example of a reasoning, physics-based game like Civiballs, and he took off. No instructions, no questions, no prompts needed. He just figured it out as he went along. After about five minutes, at least eight kids were playing the game and other related games. I watched them for a while and slowly figured out some of the rules and they charged ahead to level 10 and beyond. No fear. I watched them fail at some levels again and again, but they did not show any frustration; they just persevered until they understood the rules. New is not scary. New is an adventure. That is the mind shift that I need to absorb.

I suppose I have changed and become more able to embrace new technology, but I often only see my failures and frustrations and no longer notice what I can do. I think that for many of us, we don’t realize we have changed until we stop to compare what it was like before. We may have been soaking in a new and challenging environment and learning to adapt, but we cannot see how far we have come.

I was thinking about this as I was biking home in the rain today. Back in California, I had been immersed in a car culture. We drove everywhere. For a while, we drove our kids to school. We drove to the grocery store. We drove to church. I am ashamed to admit that I even drove to the health club which was only a few miles away… and I looked for a parking spot close to the door. How ironic is that? Sacramento has one of the highest incidences of asthma because of its poor air quality. Driving to a health club (in a perpetually sunny environment) really was ridiculous on so many levels, but I didn’t notice it at the time. Now, here in Tokyo, I bike 22 km a day in all kinds of weather. On my way home today, I passed several automotive traffic jams and realized that biking, even in a downpour (or especially in a downpour) was faster than driving. It was cleaner, healthier, gave me my needed exercise and allowed me almost two hours of downtime per day. And lots of other people were doing the same. I was surrounded by a different environment and had changed without knowing it had happened.

Of course, it is easier not to change. Change can be painful and uncomfortable. I have to accept the fact that I will get wet and cold and tired while biking, just as I have to accept the fact that learning about new technology and then having the courage to try to use it effectively, failing and then trying again, is all par for the course. To finally feel that you are in your element, you first have to be immersed in the elements. A change in thinking will allow a change of heart.

Edutopia Topiary

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Okay, so there’s a fast-growing bush called technology integration growing smack-dab in the middle of my classroom. Can’t ignore it; really should make use of it; but it’s just so huge and out-of-control that no one knows what to do with it. Time to tackle the pruning. Cut away what is not useful right now (don’t worry; it will grow back) and leave the leaves that benefit the most students at this time. I need to create a topiary that fits with my environment, so how do I shape this thing?

While reading the article, “Shaping Tech for the Classroom,” found on Edutopia’s website  http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt , I found myself waging a running battle in my head. Yes, of course, the students want constant access to email… “ The number-one technology request of today’s students is to have email and instant messaging always available and part of school.” But would providing this to the students actually enhance their learning? I have witnessed what happens when students have access to email and IM at our school. They chat, gossip, gripe, game; they do anything but schoolwork. Yes, it would be great if they would start IMing about the assignment or start Skyping sonnets while looking up references to Elizabethan English as they speak, but it’s not happening yet. Their favorite use of the digital tools is communicating with friends and working on their own self-images.
Technology is not always the answer. We need to discern when it is the answer. Automatic grading of tests could certainly save teachers plenty of time, but only if the assessment is originally constructed in such a way as to allow the automatic grading. Creative and authentic assessments, however, are often more organic and individualized and require a pair of human eyes to give a fair evaluation. Snip, snip. When and where?

It was inspiring to read about the educational possibilities that our current connectivity could bring to the students. As the article states, “If we really offered our children some great future-oriented content (such as, for example, that they could learn about nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience in neat interactive ways from real experts), and they could develop their skills in programming, knowledge filtering, using their connectivity, and maximizing their hardware, and that they could do so with cutting-edge, powerful, miniaturized, customizable, and one-to-one technology, I bet they would complete the “standard” curriculum in half the time it now takes, with high test scores all around.” Yes, that would be great. I noticed that the only time my own child had time to pursue this kind of self-motivated schooling was when we home-schooled him for half a year. During that time he researched the solar system and molecules. He ended up writing and illustrating three books about a water molecule named “Feenix” who helped explain, through his various adventures, the water cycles, the states of water and the atomic structure of a single water molecule. And that was when he was in First Grade.

 

 

We can and should do more for our students because when they are inspired, they can and will do more for themselves and their own personal bliss-inspired quest for learning.

Letting the Flower Create the Root

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Bloom’s Taxonomy. The name starts out making me think of colors, blossoms and growth (Bloom’s) and ends by threatening me with an insinuation of taxes and monotony (Taxonomy). Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy seems even more threatening ‘cuz it’s got that Digital thing in there: http://tinyurl.com/438yalc  But as I read this article and absorbed the diagrams, I thought about how I learn and my attitudes as I approach new information, especially when that information involves technology. First, I should explain that I am picturing Bloom’s Taxonomy as a flower, with the creative layer (evaluation) at the top and the remembering layer (knowledge) at the bottom. Creativity is reaching toward the sun, glorious with its shimmering petals and supporting sepals, and remembering is in the dirt, down there with the compost and the worms. Both parts are important, of course, along with the stuff in between, but I know what motivates me. I don’t grow a flower to admire its intricate root structure (although I am sure that does have its own beauty). I grow a flower to eventually see the blossom.

I suspect that my students may be the same. If they are motivated by the opportunity to create something that interests them and impresses their peers, then they will have the patience to work their way up through the layers of Bloom’s Taxonomy so that they have the resources to get to the colorful finish. And just as the root systems of plants tend to spread out and support each other, these networked students can help each other grow as they share knowledge and both challenge and affirm each other’s ideas. Connectivity has its merits.

I think about the task that waits for me, with a deadline looming in December. Finishing my first digital illustrated children’s book is a very motivating goal for me… but just thinking about all the steps I need to take to get there, makes me weak in the knees. I’m afraid that my roots and stems will not grow fast enough to support that bud. I do have my own helpful connections, digital and personal. I suspect that my tech-savvy hubby will be helping quite a bit as he has in the past. I want to be able to build my digital independence, but there is so much to learn at once. I will try to remember to take it one step at a time, and to not be afraid of the dirt and the worms. Bring it on.

Hanging, Messing and Geeking; a Family History

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While reading the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur-funded “white paper” (http://tinyurl.com/3nag5ag) about the new media practices of online “Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out,” I realized that I had witnessed the evolution of this culture and many examples of all three modes of virtual behavior in my now-14-yr. old daughter. Thanks to her, I was familiar with the behaviors discussed in the papers and could fill in many examples as I read along.

I remember my youngest’s first foray into the online communities with her fascination with a penguin-populated chat room (http://www.clubpenguin.com/). All three children were heavily invested in Neopets (http://www.neopets.com/) at one point and I remember the family drama when our oldest managed to get all the family accounts frozen after he defied the game rules by creating multiple accounts in order to rack up loads of game points. He still takes heat for that escapade.

While I understand the educational possibilities of trying to tap into this youth-culture fascination with being constantly connected with one’s peers and being able to “geek out” in an area of one’s own predilection, there are far too many areas of scholastics which may need to be taught irregardless of a teen’s willingness to geek out in that area. I have watched my daughter do a deep dive into creative writing while creating complex story lines with online co-creators and I have recently witnessed her sudden ability to disassemble and repair a 20-inch iMac by simply looking up the instructions online. Even when she was only nine years old, I watched her successfully dissect a bullfrog using diagrams that she looked up online. She identified all of the internal organs and even discerned the cause of death of her specimen which she had found near the Tama River in Tokyo.

With the ubiquitous availability of information, where there is a desire to learn, there is also the means to go as deep as one might desire. And from intense study, original creation is often a result. Online tutorials in digital drawing and use of the digital tablet, along with online artistic communities, such as Deviant Art (http://www.deviantart.com/) and websites where participants can collect and modify digital pets, our youngest is learning to hone her abilities with both digital and traditional pen and paper. She has even succeeded in drawing me into this world as I began to collaborate on a children’s book with an artist in Sweden whom we discovered through the online community.

The challenge remains in finding a way to actively engage digitally-savvy youth to embrace those scholastic disciplines and subjects that do not grab them by their mental lapels and shake them awake. If they are motivated, they will learn far more than we can teach them. But if they are not motivated to learn something, then they will invariably find a way to geek out once again only in the areas that hold their interest.

Certifiably Confused

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This past week has marked the beginning of a year-long course that should improve my functioning in the techno etherspere. Ya, I know that is not a real word, but I don’t yet know how to describe the body of knowledge which I know I should have in my head, but is still floating out there beyond my reach.

I am finding it hard to simply remember the meaning of the acronym, COETAIL, which stands for Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy; and yes, I did have to look it up again to double-check. TMI and TLT… too much information and too little time.

I did set up my RSS feed via NetNewsWire, but then ignored it all week since it was not sending me any email notices. It seems like nowadays, with the busy work schedule and two hours of commuting by bicycle, I do not have much time for extras like news of the world. I do get through my email at least every few days and in this way I am reminded to read world news articles that wind up in my inbox from sources such as the “Huffington Post.” I usually read just the first paragraph and then move on to the next news item.

My NetNewsWire is now configured to launch at startup, so now, perhaps, I will pay more attention to the 2o or more blogs and news feeds that I have subscribed to.

Here is one item that caught my eye: http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/08/21/blooms-taxonomy-and-ipad-apps/. These colorful representations of Bloom’s Taxonomy would be great posters to have in the classroom and the chart showing the various iPad applications sorted into their places in Bloom’s hierarchy made me realize why this whole process of information gathering and sorting via RSS is so aggravating to me. I would rather be creating content than gathering, sorting and disseminating it. I will need to compartmentalize a bit if I expect to gather and integrate the information that continues to bombard my synapses.

Doing the Digital Dive

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I must be crazy. What do I think I’m doing? I’m going about this the wrong way. If I say it to myself before I hear it from someone else, perhaps it won’t be so discouraging and perhaps I won’t give up. I am attempting to publish my first illustrated children’s book. I have chosen my own illustrator, procured my own ISBN number, and will be my own publisher. And yes, I do know all of the arguments against this kind of folly.

Here’s the way it is supposed to be done: You write your stories, get editing advice from fellow writers and friends (some of whom remain friends), submit countless query letters (after researching which publishers might deign to even glance at your letter), submit manuscripts (being thankful that at least some publishers accept digital submissions), and then wait next to the mailbox (physical or virtual) with a big box of kleenex for the rejection notices to come rolling in. Then, when not one of your beautiful stories is published, you latch onto an agent who is motivated to sell your stuff since they will get a share of the profits. The agent finally convinces a publisher to give you a chance and you are launched into the world of officially sanctioned and published writing.

The publisher writes up your contract, decides what percentage (if any) of the book sales that you will receive, chooses an illustrator (whose work you may or may not like), dictates changes to the text of the book and tells you what the title will be. Publishers are, of course, helpful in many respects and they do earn their keep in countless ways: designing the book layout, creating an eye-catching cover, telling you clearly when your writing sucks, keeping track of income and taxes by providing you with year-end statements… and most importantly of all…. Promoting The Book.

Those publishers know all the angles: the bookworm magazines and literary organizations, the librarian blogs and rags, the trade shows, the bookstore promos, the schmoozing and oozing. I know I’ve left lots out because I haven’t traveled there and I don’t have a map. I’m just publishing a book because I like the story, I love the illustrator and I think that children will enjoy the result.

That said, I am still scared spitless. (Why is my spell-checker underlining the word, “spitless?” Isn’t that a word? It’s reality anyways.)

So, I am doing the dive; a self-published digital book optimized for the iPad, available by Christmas of 2011. My feet have left the platform and I am free-falling. It is exhilarating as the wind rushes past my face… but eventually I will contact the surface of the deadline, go deep, and hopefully eventually come up for air. It’s too late to haul me back to the diving platform and counsel me to take it to a legitimate publisher, but it’s not too late to pray.

Eyeball and Skull

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“I have asked you to move that eyeball and skull for TWO WEEKS now,” I sigh with exasperation as I set the offending items on my daughter’s messy desk. Of course, I finally have to move the nasty things myself. Maybe I am exaggerating just a bit, since it has been only one week since Halloween. But I’ve had to look at that ghastly fox skull and its accompanying sticky glow-in-the-dark eyeball every morning since then, when it was left by the bathroom sink where I brush my teeth. Does anyone else have to put up with this type of stuff? An animal skull gaping at you from under your hair accessories while you snatch a barrette off of its hard cranium. As if it needed that barrette. But now it’s looking at you as if you just stole something from him. Or maybe it was a her. Can’t tell at this point.
There is a story behind the skull… (isn’t there always?) It was rescued from the bottom of Lake Nojiri up in the mountains of Japan where we go most summers on vacation. Merely the bones were rescued, unfortunately not the fox, and Elsa had spent many happy hours diving for every bit of bone that she could to piece together a complete fox skeleton. She was proud to be able to point out to the other bone divers that the skull (which was the first part brought up) was certainly not a bird because birds did not have teeth and especially not long canines as this skull definitely did. The skeleton was lovingly assembled on the dock and then bundled home in a bag to be soaked in bleach and scrubbed clean. (No I did not agree to do that.)
The fox skull ended up decorated with dramatic black lines and attached to my daughter’s hair as the crowning touch to a creepy roadkill-Goth ensemble that she pulled together for her last year of trick-or-treating. She will be in high school next year after all, so of course she won’t go dressing up next year… So this year’s costume was her last hurrah. It was quite the deal. She even had the added chill of red contact lenses. Lovely.
Very dramatic, but now do I have to look at a skull everyday? And what about those dead beetles and the occasion insect leg that I find laying around when she hasn’t been very conscientious about her insect collection. And there was that extremely long hair worm that lived in a jar for I don’t know how long. You will never imagine where that came from. Do a search on “Hair Worm” if you really want to know. The one she collected came from a praying mantis. Why can’t she just decorate her room with stuffed animals like other normal kids? I like stuffed animals and the live ones are nice too. I’m just not too fond of the unstuffed ones. I guess what we really need is a creepy lab out in the back yard to hold all of these wonderful treasures. As long as it was far away from my toothbrush. Then I think I would feel much better.

Panties in the Postbox

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So the other day, my husband brings in the mail as he gets home from work in the evening. “Who put these panties in the mailbox?” he asks. Good question. I didn’t know about any skivvies being posted to our address. “Whose are they?” I ask, eager to solve the mystery. He describes them and I realize, with a sinking feeling, that they are mine. “What were they doing in the mailbox?” I ask accusingly, as I glance over at my daughter. At 13, she does some unusual things occasionally, like crouching quietly, an animated gargoyle, unseen on the foyer roof directly above her daddy as he exits the front door to depart on a weekend bike ride, while a bewildered neighbor looks on from across the street.
Elsa quickly defends herself. “I didn’t put them there!” So, if I didn’t, and Joel didn’t, and Elsa didn’t… Oh great. A helpful neighbor must have found them and placed our “wasuremono” or “forgotten item” in our mailbox for us. But how could a pair of underwear have found their way out onto the street?

I do remember one time, when I was in a hurry to get dressed, that I pulled on the same pants I had worn the day before (they were still clean after all!) and started down the hall to the stairs, only to feel something slide down my leg and drop to the floor. Yes, indeed. The bloomers of yesterday were hiding in my pant leg, just waiting to embarrass me at some point in the day. Luckily it was only myself and one of my daughters who witnessed this faux pas, and when we had finished hyperventilating from laughter, I calmly consolidated my laundry, making a mental note to always check my pant legs in the future. And I always do check those pant legs now, so I know that I didn’t accidentally “drop my drawers” on the way to work.

This leaves only one remaining possibility: our always-eager-to-carry-things-in-his-mouth Golden Retriever, Bjorn. He has the irrepressible habit of padding around the house in the morning, looking for items which have been carelessly left on the floor. And the first person to get up in the morning is proudly presented with whatever he has eagerly retrieved. Often, the item is, appropriately enough, a slipper. He can sometimes be encouraged to drop the first bedroom slipper at your feet and on command, “go get the other one.” Occasionally, the next item of footwear delivered is actually the other slipper, whereupon Bjorn is declared a genius dog and we rush to contact the local news station. Usually not, though. Sometimes the item proudly delivered to our morning-eyed bleariness is a not-so-appropriate item.

After his morning delivery, Bjorn knows that he will soon be let out into the small field near the house where he can relieve himself. We have found the occasional slipper in that field before, but we had never before inadvertently let him out of the house with panties in his maw. Thinking back now, I remember him exiting the house in the morning with his mouth firmly closed and his tail wagging. I should have searched him for contraband before letting him past the front gate.

The truth begins to sink in. The kindly old couple next door must have found Bjorn’s early morning retrieval item near the field, and thoughtfully placed it in our mailbox. The conclusion that follows is obvious and inescapable. We have to move. This is just too embarrassing. And to top it off, he had to pick the ones decorated with cherries. That dog is definitely in the dog house… for a long time too.

Emerging from Flatland

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I spent the day at ASIJ attending a workshop for school librarians that presented two speakers; one spoke about library space redesign and the other spoke about the shift from paper-based book and information sources to electronic books and the vast information sources of the internet. After listening to the second speaker, Sherman Young, the author of “The Book Is Dead,” I became more aware of the paradigm shift occurring in the world of publishing, books and authorship. One thing Sherman said that struck me was the idea that a book is “a process; it takes time to write.” When we include the time spent in process and reflection, he explained, as well as the consumption and digestion on the part of the reader as they struggle to construct the reality of that book’s story or concept, then the total navigation time of a well-processed book is considerable. And to continue this idea further, for authors publishing in today’s plethora of platforms, the book becomes even more of a process.

As an author struggling to re-publish material in various new formats, including EPUB, I realized that I was wrestling with the idea that books no longer need be two-dimensional, but now contain the possibility of added dimensions, especially when those dimensions enhance the actual content instead of merely adding superficial bells and whistles. There are so many possibilities that it is hard to envision all the permutations. I feel a bit like a paper doll peeling itself off of the two-dimensional flat page and realizing that there is a huge third dimension that is begging to be explored. So, off we go, exploring the lands beyond the pulp flatlands, hoping to be able to learn from and contribute to this strange, new, puffy world.